More Views

July 2014 Sight & Sound July 2014 Sight & Sound

Amma Asante on race, costume drama and Belle, Jane Campion on Cannes, Bruno Dumont on Juliette Binoche, Camille Claudel and transcendental cinema, Fei Mu’s Chinese classic Spring in a Small Town and the dark dreams of Dennis Potter.Amma Asante on race, costume drama and Belle, Jane Campion on Cannes, Bruno Dumont on Juliette Binoche, Camille Claudel and transcendental cinema, Fei Mu’s Chinese classic Spring in a Small Town and the dark dreams of Dennis Potter.

Description

Details

Features

COVER FEATURE: Portrait of a lady

Amma Asante’s Belle presents a fictionalised account of the true tale of a mixed-race aristocrat in 18th-century England, a delicate portrait of the complexities of race and racism that strives to show that nothing in life is ever simply black and white. By Ashley Clark.

Angels and devils: the dark dreams of Dennis Potter

Britain’s pre-eminent television dramatist produced a body of work unmatched for the range of its polemical concerns. Pioneering the use of experimental techniques designed to shake viewers from their passive slumber on the sofa, his barbed, darkly comic work laid bare his own demons as he sought to shine a light on the nation’s spiritual longings, sexual anxiety and political malaise. By Graham Fuller.

Tales of ordinary madness

Bruno Dumont’s austere evocation of the life of a troubled artist in a French asylum, Camille Claudel 1915, is driven by a complex, enigmatic performance by Juliette Binoche. Here the director explains why he urged her to ‘do nothing’ in front of the camera, and how the transcendent power of cinema helps transform reality to reveal the sacred in everyday life. By Jonathan Romney.

Love among the ruins

A nationalist who sought to promote Confucian values, director Fei Mu emerged with China’s Second Generation in the 1930s but rejected their leftist political agendas. Pursuing his own poetic, experimental trajectory, his cinematic voice found full flower in 1948’s Spring in a Small Town, the tale of a love triangle set amid the post-war devastation of the Yangtze Delta. By Noah Cowan.

Reviews

Films of the month

plus reviews of

Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic CowboysThe Art of the StealBastardsBattle Company: KorengalBelleBlendedBrick MansionsCamille Claudel 1915ChefChinese PuzzleCommon PeopleCycling with MolièreDevil’s KnotThe Fault in Our StarsGodzillaGrace of MonacoThe Hooligan FactoryIn SecretLeave to RemainMariachi GringoMiss ViolenceMistaken for StrangersOculusOf Horses and Men112 WeddingsThe 100-year-old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and DisappearedThe Other WomanPlasticReturn to HomsRoadSecret SharerSeven Streets, Two Markets and a Wedding: Glimpses of Lost London 1930-19803 Days to KillTouchy FeelyWhen I Saw YouX-Men Days of Future PastThe Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

Features

COVER FEATURE: Portrait of a lady

Amma Asante’s Belle presents a fictionalised account of the true tale of a mixed-race aristocrat in 18th-century England, a delicate portrait of the complexities of race and racism that strives to show that nothing in life is ever simply black and white. By Ashley Clark.

Angels and devils: the dark dreams of Dennis Potter

Britain’s pre-eminent television dramatist produced a body of work unmatched for the range of its polemical concerns. Pioneering the use of experimental techniques designed to shake viewers from their passive slumber on the sofa, his barbed, darkly comic work laid bare his own demons as he sought to shine a light on the nation’s spiritual longings, sexual anxiety and political malaise. By Graham Fuller.

Tales of ordinary madness

Bruno Dumont’s austere evocation of the life of a troubled artist in a French asylum, Camille Claudel 1915, is driven by a complex, enigmatic performance by Juliette Binoche. Here the director explains why he urged her to ‘do nothing’ in front of the camera, and how the transcendent power of cinema helps transform reality to reveal the sacred in everyday life. By Jonathan Romney.

Love among the ruins

A nationalist who sought to promote Confucian values, director Fei Mu emerged with China’s Second Generation in the 1930s but rejected their leftist political agendas. Pursuing his own poetic, experimental trajectory, his cinematic voice found full flower in 1948’s Spring in a Small Town, the tale of a love triangle set amid the post-war devastation of the Yangtze Delta. By Noah Cowan.

Reviews

Films of the month

plus reviews of

Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic CowboysThe Art of the StealBastardsBattle Company: KorengalBelleBlendedBrick MansionsCamille Claudel 1915ChefChinese PuzzleCommon PeopleCycling with MolièreDevil’s KnotThe Fault in Our StarsGodzillaGrace of MonacoThe Hooligan FactoryIn SecretLeave to RemainMariachi GringoMiss ViolenceMistaken for StrangersOculusOf Horses and Men112 WeddingsThe 100-year-old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and DisappearedThe Other WomanPlasticReturn to HomsRoadSecret SharerSeven Streets, Two Markets and a Wedding: Glimpses of Lost London 1930-19803 Days to KillTouchy FeelyWhen I Saw YouX-Men Days of Future PastThe Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet